Tenth Anniversary Striping

[roadking77]

I have a period picture of a car carrier with a couple of tenth ann. cars being unloaded. The front air dam/spoiler and the front wheel fender flares are not on the car. I read somewhere they were all shipped this way to be installed by the dealer. It is hard to tell in the picture that I have but it looks like the striping around the wheel well goes all the way around. Can someone confirm if this is the case.

[b_hill_86]

I don’t have an answer for you but it’s funny you mention how the cars were shipped. I’m sitting at a local cruise in right now and a guy was just talking to me about my car and said he worked on these back in the late 70s at a dealership and he mentioned that the flares, spoiler, air dam and other things weren’t on the cars during delivery and were installed after.

[5th T/A]

I found this supposedly, 500 mile unrestored TATA in Hemmings. Lots of pictures and a video, maybe it will answer your question on stripping.

https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/dealer/pontiac/firebird/2642400.html

[Wallington]

Some nice detail pics. But 1 of engine bay? It's the first thing I looked for.

[roadking77]

Reading through the 79 supplemental service manual last night for unrelated stuff, I happened across the decal layout page. It clearly states that on the special edition cars the stripes go UNDER the wheel flares. I would only assume the Tenths were the same way.

[Warren Seale]

When my car arrived at the dealer at the end of March 79 they called me and said that I can come over and look it over.  However, they said that the car is dirty and had not been touched or prepped for delivery.  The lower air dam and front flairs were on the car.  This car was shipped from Norwood to Jenkintown PA I assume by truck.

[roadking77]

I would suspect that the dealer had put them on, just did not have a chance for cleanup hence saying the car had not been touched yet. I know a fellow that transported them back in the day and he also confirmed that the front air dams and wheel flares were in the trunk. If you see the angle of them being unloaded from the truck you would understand why. Honestly, I have no idea how to move pictures around on my computer, if things are in flickr I have no problem, LOL. If I can figure out how to copy it over I will post the pic I have of them being unloaded.


In regards to the Hemmings car, I would have doubts to the 500 mile claim. The ad says 500 miles showing. That sounds like a bit of a disclaimer There are chips on the driver door edge, again, the front air dam has some damage on the pass side. Looks like a stain on the pass side floor. Engine looks crusty but they were never perfect and concours ready, I would expect 500 miles to be a bit nicer. The bottom is def crusty, again expected of an original car but there seems to be a lot of oil at the rear of the motor. I suppose with only 500 miles the seal could have dry rotted explaining that part of it.

[Wallington]

Standard task to install when delivered, even had paperwork that went with vehicle to instruct as much. I think there's info in the manuals but also reminders in the Dealer Bulletins.

Something else I have saved, and read, but not really understood, is that there was even the option to have the wheel flares installed but not the front spoiler airdam. There was even a special bracket each side to support the flares since the main part was now missing. That's in the 79 Bulletin Updates pack. Actually, it's the upper support brackets repurposed for the new task.

Here's a low mileage one I had a few pics saved of.

79 TATA 403 low miles original suspension diff valve cover label (6) by Ben, on Flickr